Indian Language Internet Alliance to build Indic internet

BG Mahesh

3 years ago

Google India has taken the initiative of working with various stake holders of the internet eco system in India to grow Indian Languages on the internet. Through this effort India is expected to from the internet user base from the current 250 million to 500 million by 2017, majority of whom will be from mobile internet users.

Indian Language Internet Alliance (ILIA) has been formed to grow the usage of Indic on the internet. It is represented by content publishers (newspapers, pure online players like Oneindia), technology companies, advertising agencies, policy makers, startups in the Indic space and many more.

Help Indic start-ups access both financial and non-financial resources to scale

In India about 200 million speak English and 450 million speak Hindi. The growth of English language on the internet is saturating, the next big growth can come only from Indian languages. Focus on Hindi to start with, and build a successful template that can then be replicated across all other languages.

A new Hindi internet user may not know from where to begin his surfing journey, HindiWeb.com could be a good starting point. Similar sites will be released for other languages.

Using keyboard has been a challenge for Indian language users. Google has just come out with Hindi voice search, this should increase the usage of Hindi on their search engine.

SWAT teams have been formed to tackle important tasks,

Fonts & Tools

Content (Creation, Discoverability & Monetization)

Publicity – Work with ILIA members who own Media properties to build mass awareness

To me personally wider, faster internet access and discoverability on Google are the biggest issues. Revenue will increase once brands see the usage of Indic is far higher than English on the internet.